The Texas heat couldn’t stop the San Antonio Vet Center outreach specialists from joining Soldiers’ Angels volunteers during a monthly drive-through food distribution for Veterans. 

With this summer’s record-breaking temperatures, the mobile unit doubled as a cooling station to help volunteers helping to feed military personnel and Veterans.

Each month, Marine Corps Veteran Steven Roland, of the San Antonio Northwest Vet Center, and Army Veteran Raymond Kaloplastos, from the San Antonio Northeast Vet Center, deploy the Mobile Vet Center to assist with military and Veterans Food Distributions.

“There were at least 300 Veterans at this one particular event on Aug. 17, and I spoke with about 100 Veterans,” said Roland (on the left in the photo). “It’s great to do outreach at events because about 15 of the Veterans I spoke to needed services.”

Drive-through food distribution

San Antonio is one of the seven cities Soldiers’ Angels provides monthly drive-through food distributions for military members and Veterans. In addition to the food drive through, Soldiers’ Angels works with VA medical centers to provide Veterans with box lunches and gift cards to low-income and homeless Veterans.

“Many Veterans may have anxiety about asking for help or getting information about a resource. Being a Veteran, I can relate and am here to help them out. Ray and I were able to provide information to Veterans at the food drive and after the event we conducted follow ups with those individuals,” said Roland, who had himself visited the Vet Center after leaving the Marines in 2007.

“This is my passion. My first priority is the Veteran. My Vet Center counselor grabbed me and said, ‘Hey, this is where we’re going.’  I did my counseling, started school, got a solid foundation and then got hired at the Vet Center. Helping a Veteran get through a crisis or something they may be dealing with is the most rewarding aspect of my job at the Vet Center,” he shared.

Read more stories on VA’s efforts to prevent food insecurity.

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